Choice Lit Topic: Teaching Reading
Our contributors lead reading workshops in classrooms with creative flair. Over the past 12 years, we’ve filled our site with loads of suggestions, tools, and tips for using engaging books throughout the curriculum to hook kids on reading. Here is where you will find many stories of successful and not-so-successful workshop days, and what we learned from them. We bring these stories to life through hundreds of video examples.
Results
Writing a Strong Conclusion to a Literary Analysis Essay
Christy Rush-Levine helps eighth grader Katherine sort through tools and strategies for writing a strong conclusion to her literary analysis essay.
Girls’ Book Share in Fifth Grade
Katherine Sokolowski demonstrates how she helps a group of girls in her fifth-grade classroom learn to help each other select books based on previous experiences and tastes.
Children’s Books: Mirrors and Windows
“I’ve been to the barbershop!” exclaims Tyrell, bouncing on his knees. “My pop-pop took me to the barbershop.” His kindergarten teacher, Gina, looks up from the read-aloud book Bippity Bop...
Assessment Refresh
“I don’t know how to do this,” Jenny whined. “Will you help me?” Jenny was an eighth grader who had dealt with major health issues throughout middle school. She had...
They Don’t Read at Home
The building literacy team gathered around the table as the year came to a close, ready to look at the progress of their students during the school year. I’m geeky...
Using Read Alouds to Build Fluency
Early in the year, as we’re getting into our routine of setting weekly goals, we’re sure to mention to our fourth-grade students that we find that reading in our head...
More Nonfiction Read Alouds
Every year I plan to read aloud more nonfiction to students. And every year I do—but just a little more. I have worked hard over the last five years to...
Color-Symbol-Image: A Thinking Routine for Read Alouds
My yearlong exploration of Visible Thinking Routines began with a vision for my students and their learning lives. I wanted students to leave fourth grade prepared to think about and...
Great Books for African American Boys
When Serena saw the class list for her middle school language arts class, she knew that it was going to be a challenge. There were 18 boys in a class...
Eighth-Grade Conference: Empathetic Reading
Christy Rush-Levine confers with eighth grader Julian about his strengths as an empathetic reader.
Exploring Text Features
Melanie Meehan works with a small group to talk through how nonfiction text features might enhance their informational writing.
Sketching Your Way to a Big Idea
In eighth grade, our last unit of the year was a Shakespeare unit on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We used the Shakespeare Set Free text from the Folger Shakespeare Library...
Better Student-Led Literature Discussions
A good discussion increases the dimensions of everyone who takes part. Randolph Bourne “I can’t believe they just left her behind on purpose,” laments Danielle, gripping her book and...
Gradual Release of Responsibility in Small Groups
At times in our teaching careers, we’ve stepped back and realized we've been teaching too much. It happens when we’ve gradually fallen into a cycle of teaching a new minilesson...
First-Grade Minilesson: Tricky Words
First-grade teacher Bitsy Parks presents a minilesson on figuring out tricky words by recounting a student's strategy from a recent reading conference, using it to begin an anchor chart. ...
Balancing Reading and Talk
“Will you guys please be quiet and get back to your reading?” I heard myself asking my seventh-grade honors social studies class. It was obvious by their conversation that they...
Building a Reflective Community
“So what you’re saying is that this chart isn’t about being right or wrong. It’s about figuring things out,” Tom said, eyeing our newest comprehension chart that I had unveiled...
Sentence Phrase Word: Student Independence for Word Learning
Gazing around our classroom community area, I could see that my fourth graders were ready to begin our third day with our latest read-aloud novel. I spotted Zoe waving her...
Lunchtime Author Discussion Groups
Sophia stands in front of me, panic-stricken. “I need Sisters and it’s not in the bin!” She is holding Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novel Drama in both hands. Sisters is another...
Fourth-Grade Lunch Fan Club
Gigi McAllister hosts a lunchtime fan club of children who enjoy the work of Kazu Kibuishi, author of the Amulet series. Participation in the group is voluntary.
Sharing and Celebrating Summer Reading
We know that summer reading is essential to help prevent summer slippage, and we support students and their families at the end of the year in making summer reading plans...
